Toy pieces in the form of toy bricks such as LEGO® brand toy bricks have been available for many decades. Toy bricks typically have releasable couplings between bricks, which allow them to be connected to form a larger structure. In their simplest form they build unanimated objects such as castles or houses. In some cases, the toy created using toy bricks can be supported on a baseplate having coupling elements to provide stability or proper positioning, or both, for the toy.
An advancement of toy bricks was the addition of bricks with a rotating joint or axle coupled to a wheel. Such a toy brick can be attached to an inanimate structure in order to make that structure roll along a surface when pushed.
A further advancement of toy bricks was the addition of “pull back motors.” These motors are mechanical energy storage elements, which store energy in a watch spring or flywheel. Typically these are toy bricks which have the “pull back motor” mechanism contained within the brick. There is a shaft from the mechanism, which when turned in one direction winds up the motor and then when released will turn in the opposite direction. A toy brick car, for example, equipped with such a motor will wind up when pulled back and then go forwards when released. An example of this is the LEGO Pullback Motor.
The next stage of advancement of a toy brick is an electric motor contained within one brick, having a protruding shaft and another toy brick with a battery compartment. These battery and motor bricks can be coupled to each other directly or through wires in order to create a simple mechanism that is electrically actuated. Typically a switch is present on the brick containing the batteries that can turn the motor on or off or revere its direction. Variations on the actuator can be lights, instead of a motor. An example of this is the LEGO eLab.
Toy bricks containing motors and toy bricks containing batteries can be further enhanced by the insertion of a remote control receiver in between them, such that the passage of power can be modified remotely. Typically a hand held remote control transmitter transmits a signal to a receiver brick, which can change the speed or direction of the motor. By way of example, a toy brick vehicle constructed in such a manner can be steered remotely and also have its speed controlled remotely. An example of this is the LEGO Power Functions.
The most complex state of prior art is the programmable robotics kit sold by the LEGO Group under the trademark Mindstorms®. The kit typically includes a handheld programmable computer, to which sensors and actuators can be plugged in, along with toy bricks and specialized components for making a variety of projects. Actuators can be motors, or solenoids, speakers, or lights. Sensors can be switches, microphones, light sensors or ultrasonic rangefinders. By way of example, a program can be downloaded into the handheld computer, so as to control a motor in a manner so as to avoid collisions with objects in the direction of motion. Another example would be to make a noise when motion is detected. Another programmable Mindstorms programmable robot is the Micro Scout. It is a motorized wheeled robot in which several preprogrammed sequences can be executed when a light is shined on the robot.
US patent publication US2011/0217898 A1 describes a toy brick with a tilt sensor and lights of the same color turning on and off or flashing alternately in response to a shaking motion. U.S. Pat. No. 7,708,615 discloses a toy brick system having separate sensor bricks, logic bricks and function bricks. The following toy bricks also emit sound when a switch is closed. LEGO doorbell Brick #5771, LEGO Space Sound Brick #55206C05.
Various devices generate images on display screens. One type of image generating device is a computer, such as pad computer, which can be designed to permit interaction with the computer through the display screen. This is commonly through touchscreen technology which permits actions to be initiated by, for example, selecting appropriate icons on the display screen, as well as lines to be drawn on the display screen. In addition to touchscreen technologies, interaction with the computer through the display screen can also be through the use of devices commonly referred to as light pens. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,428. In Light pen based interaction, images are generated on a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) by excitation of the phosphor on the screen by an electron beam. This excitation causes the emission of light. Since a single point electron beam scans the image in a raster pattern, the light at any one point on the screen fades with time, as the beam progresses to a different part of the screen. During the next scan of the screen the image is refreshed. The intensity at any one point on the screen will flicker at the rate of refresh of the screen, and is typically a sawtooth type waveform with a fast rise and a slower decay if plotted in time. The light from any given point on the screen will increase sharply as the electron beam passes by any location as long as the image is not completely black at that point on the screen. The display knows the position of the electron beam at any given time, and this position can be captured at the instant when a sharp jump in a light level is seen by the light pen. By this method the light pen can be used as a pointing device, typically with additional buttons similar to mouse buttons, which are sometimes arranged so as to be mechanically activated when the pen is pressed against a surface.